Justice John Paul Stevens, who Gerald Ford nominated to the Supreme Court after suffering one too many closed head injuries from falling down the steps of Air Force One, told the Washington Post that he would definitely be retiring before Obama’s first (and hopefully only) term is up.

If you see William Ayers with an anticipatory grin on his face today, that might be why — however I tend to think there’s a chance Obama will nominate Hillary just to get her out of the way so she doesn’t challenge him for the nomination in ’12, provided Obama’s numbers keep falling like they are.

Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl was asked about what kind of judge Obama would nominate:

Kyl stressed that he didn’t want to see “someone coming in with preconceived attitudes… we’ve had too much of that.” The next justice should be there to simply interpret the law, he added.

“I hope he does not nominate an overly ideological person,” Kyl said. “That will be the test.”